Gra Lygia

Gra Lighia is located approximately 5km west of Ierapetra. Its residents are called "GraLighiotes". They are occupied mainly in the agriculture sector,this is the main source of income for the residents and their income per capita is one of the highest in the region. The village is surrounded by greenhouses wich demonstrates that the agriculture sector is modernised and there are a lot of firms in related fields such as agriculture companies that co-operate with multinationals.

In the recent years there has been a lot of development as far as concerns the standard of living of the village.Young people can enjoy the presence of,cafeterias,internet cafes,snack bars,kebab shops,dvd rentals.Major shops are Linux cafe (internet cafe),gyrovolies (kebab shop),Joanna (clothwear),Avantage (cafe bar) and others.There are two relatively big supermarkets and several corner shops that give a good shopping and leisure environment to the community.

The community enjoys high multicultural environment as a lot of immigrants live here and contribute to the local economy mainly as manual workers.The immigrants are mainly for countries of the former Communist block.The majority of them comes from Bulgaria and Albania,but also from countries such as Poland,Russia etc.

Sports are highly popular in the village,especially football and basketball.The basketball team of Lygia won the double in the local championship of the Cretan League and got promoted in the Third National Division for the Season 2006-2007. There are some sports facilities such as a basketball and volleyball court in the elementary school and a small football stadium in Kotsyfiani church area.

The beach of the village

The village is near the seaside looking over to the Libyan Sea and is a great place for swimming and summer sports.Each summer some tournaments such as beach football are organised in the local beach.During the summer the beach is very popular as a lot of people with origins from Gra-Lighia spend their holidays in the village.Local people enjoy sailing and fishing and they possess small boats that one can see in the marina of the village.

A notable person with origins from Gra Lighia is Ioannis Pyrgiotakis wich is ex vice-chancelor of the Univercity of Crete.